My Foray into My Midwestern Roots

Been So Busy

I want to apologize to my faithful readers for not posting as often as I have in the past. I am taking two classes at the local community college – one via online – so between studying, going to class, my part time job, and caring for the home, I’ve been a little too busy to write articles.

However, I’ve been following several of the other genea-blogs and am so excited that genealogy is going “mainstream”! Some examples:

“Faces of America” - the four-part PBS show hosted by Dr. Gates that focused on the ancestry of several celebrities (Meryl Streep, Mike Nichols, Stephen Cobert, Queen Noor, etc.)

“Who Do You Think You Are?” - the U.S. equivalent to the BBC series. From Executive Producer, Lisa Kudrow, this series on NBC focuses on one celebrity per episode. The first took Sarah Jessica Parker on a trek via her hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio to California and then to New England and the second episode took Emmett Smith from the Deep South in search of his slave roots and then across the ocean to Africa. I’m excited by this program and enjoy the “AHA” moments each of them have!

“Generations Project” - on BYU Television. If you don’t have this, you can view the episodes online. This series follows “normal” people in their quest for their roots.

And all of this comes just in time for the Census to be filled out. I’ve read so many issues debating this. People don’t want to give this information out (you think they don’t already know?), that it will be used for the wrong purpose, why is it important, etc. I, for one, know that some of my ancestors probably didn’t like it either – or I’d have found them by now! In 72 years the genealogists in your family (your grandkids or great-grandkids or even a great-niece or nephew) will thank you for filling this out and sending it in.

I hope to be back to posting regularly in the weeks to come so please – don’t go away!